It’s as true in the taxi industry as it is in any other field today — when you want to build brand awareness and improve marketing results, you can’t ignore social media influencers. More and more brands are jumping on board with the power of influencers. In fact, the number of ad posts on Instagram doubled to 1.5 million between 2016 and 2017, according to member-based business intelligence firm L2. Why? Simply put, social media influencers have the credibility and reach to drive real business results. Their followers trust them, and that trust translates to influence.

How can you promote your taxi app and improve marketing results by using social media influencer marketing practices? How large your influencer marketing budget should be? How to choose influencers? What makes this work?

To help answer these questions, here’s a look at how to market your business with social media influencers.

Start with your target demographic

For effective influencer marketing, you want to start by thinking through the customers you are trying to reach. In the taxi field, your target customers are simply people who take cabs in your geographic area. This means you want to seek out influencers who reach local travelers.

Find influencers who will fit with your brand

To find influencers who fit your objectives, look for people and brands connected to the taxi industry — such as local hotels, resorts, convention centers, airports, restaurants, bars, entertainment complexes, etc. — any situations where a cab is likely to come in handy.

Additionally, look for influencers who work in local online and offline news media, or for travel and entertainment media. These individuals are already reaching an audience of travelers, i.e., people naturally interested in your taxi services. A survey by Markerley found that micro-influencers with 10k-100k followers offer the best combination of reach and engagement.

Find influencers who like what you offer

Avoid working with people who aren’t interested in your taxi company, and instead, find the influencers who would legitimately see value in your service. This includes local bloggers, travel media and any other media personnel who like being “in the know” about services like yours. If your taxi service caters to the young and hip crowd, for example, find social media personalities who do the same. If you’re establishing yourself as the most affordable, cost-effective taxi option, find people who focus on personal finance and cost savings. The more these media personnel like your business, the easier and more credible their posts will come across to followers.

Know there’s no clear standard for influencer marketing budget

Social media influencers aren’t like bus tickets; prices vary dramatically. While there isn’t an exact formula for what you should pay influencers, there is a basic guideline: You want to make sure you provide value in exchange for the content they’re creating.

While brands can pay influencers with more than just money, generally speaking, dollar amounts depend on the type of project, the influencer’s follower count, and engagement rate, and current trends in the marketplace. Top influencers will often cost 10 to 20 times more than micro-influencers. Other valuable incentives can include invitations to exclusive events, free products or services, some sort of feature in your network, etc.

Try an influencer-run contest or giveaway

One highly effective strategy for brands is to run attention-getting contests or giveaways. The influencer gets creative control and mediates the contest, but the brand provides a product or service to winners. You might offer free transportation to an upcoming event, a week’s worth of free rides, discounted rates or another related reward to winners. This works because followers are usually quick to try winning free items, so the content gets spread and featured more easily than typical ads.

Have actionable goals

One of the best ways to avoid running influencer campaigns that leave you wondering about benefits is to start with actionable goals. What do you want a campaign to achieve — more followers, more website traffic, a boost in leads interested in your taxi company? Whatever it is, use the goal to drive your campaign and measure outcomes. This way, you’ll complete the project with tangible benefits for your brand.

As a taxi business looking to reach new riders, the more ways you can get the word out about what defines your brand, the better. Working with social media influencers can be a powerful strategy, so use the tips above to get started! Channel the power of today’s most influential social media users to effectively market and boost business for your brand.

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